Isolation (2005)

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

As always - Let me start off by saying that I am not a movie critique nor a cinema student, just a humble Horror addict. This time I would also like to add that I'm usually a very easy grader. It doesn't take much for me to to enjoy a horror film, even sometimes adore it. In this case, however, I must say I was slightly disappointed.The story is not more than cute, if to be merciful, and is far from original... Something evil which crawls into a live host, infests it like a parasite, then eats it way out? Doesn't it ring just a few too many bells? The farmyard agricultural adaptation was a nice idea, okay. The acting wasn't bad or anything, but was far from impressive. This is not at all the Sean Harris I loved so much in Creep. The entire film had this sort of gloomy mood to it, set by dark lighting effects. But here that simply caused sort of a boring effect, rather than a frightening or disturbing one.All in all the thrill/suspense level was pretty low. The worst part: the disgusting footage of animal interior organs and surgery. True, it added somewhat to the development of the plot, but to me it still felt like cheap vegan propaganda. There aren't too many Irish Horror films out there, and not too many "agricultural"/"biological" horrors either (unless you count "Splice" as horror). Think of this as Alien meets Species meets Splice meets Old McDonald's farm... Fans of weird stories and B-C class low budget films might disagree with me and find this film rather enjoyable. I, personally, will not be recommending this one to anyone I know. So give it a chance if you like exploring, or take my advice and watch something else.

"Isolation" was an attempt to give horror films that elusive, sexy UK-kitchen-sink-drama feel. It's a new cinematic beast (no, not a mutant cow) and I would call it the "kitchen-sink horror-film". If Mike Leigh ever decided to make a monster flick, this might be something like what it would look like.If your life-long dream has always been to see Essie Davis stick a whole arm up a cow's *ss and then get bitten by something inside it, this is the movie for you. Personally, I just wanted to see the movie coz Essie is in it, not the cow-bum-shoving part. There are only 5-6 people in the entire movie, and yet guess whom they kill off first, before even half the movie is up? Yes, Essie. Thanks a lot, guys. And thanks for letting her show up again, half an hour later, as a damn corpse.A word of advice: NEVER kill off the pretty maiden early on. In fact, don't kill her off at all. The guys are all expendable."Attack of the Killer Cows" or "Invasion of the Cow Snatchers" wouldn't have been quite as serious-sounding as "Isolation". (Let alone "Attack of the Killer Calf".) The term "isolation" is closely related to Socialism's pet disease "alienation", and what self-respecting kitchen-sink UK film could do without that? There is an air of gloom and doom and abject hopelessness all-round in this greenish-brownish film which makes the events less cheesy than they otherwise would have been. After all, these ARE cows that kill, not vampires, and major efforts (or precautions) were made to make sure we don't burst out laughing early on in the movie. In fact, they succeeded because I never once laughed. Unfortunately, I did yawn.Just to avoid misunderstandings, none of these cows suffer from mad-cow disease, it's not that kind of illness. These cows aren't loony. They're totally rational, cold-calculating murderers.It all started as an experiment in which cows were genetically modified in order to increase their growth rate. Couldn't they have just fed them more grass? Or if they wanted bigger cows they could just have sent them to regular binge-bouts in McDonalds. It seems to work for some Americans.The black girl doesn't have it easy. It's bad enough to be hiding away from your brothers in a tiny, run-down, filthy trailer, parked near a depression-inducing Oyrish farm. But then to have to be woken up by a crawling/mutating mini-cow, shaped like the behind of Ridley Scott's alien, that must be as bad as it gets. You know you've hit rock-bottom when you're sleeping in a shoddy trailer, surrounded by farm-based mutant hell-beasts, sneaking up to your c***** at night.Speaking of which, the movie ends with the black girl's pregnancy, 4 months later. I guess the makers of this mediocrity were quite optimistic that "Isolation" would be a smash-hit, hence why not leave a door open for a pointless sequel. Will tiny, shapeless cows take over the world - or won't they? That's almost as exciting as contemplating whether Jane Austin's Mr.Darcy will marry Tina or Gina. Oh, no, I'm yawning again.

Another killer fetus movie... I swear I don't look for them , they just seem to find me. This time it's a cow fetus. Just run with it... cause if you do you'll find a little dark movie that's pretty well made. It's got the whole science will create something that will destroy you plot, but of course this time it's Irish. The Irish have had some problems with tainted beef so this might tap into some subconscious fear. I don't know.Some people have complained that this film gets a lot of ideas from other films, but what they are forgetting that in every case those "other" films also got their ideas from other films. I won't go into it cause I'm going to make a spoiler free review, but lets just say you've seen everything in here before. The movie is kind of like going to a dinner party where you already know all the ingredients before going.The movie has got that gritty, independent feel, where most scenes are too dark to see anything, but if that is what your looking for then it's all good. It is probably too griming looking and that could get a little distracting.Everything is solid, some good acting, good gore, good suspense etc. Characters a little lame, but the actors make it work. You barely get even a glimpse at the monster, though I prefer that in a film like this. Not really a lot to say about this one. It is a good, short movie to watch by yourself late at night.Though I should warn you though, if you are spoiled with movies made for millions upon millions of dollars this one may ultimately disappoint you.

It's not "Dead Meat" or "Black Sheep" but it's not so bad. One of many recent non-American horror films about ovines and bovines running amok, "Isolation" is pretty grim and serious.An Irish dairy farmer partners with a genetic engineer for some cash. But when a cow gives birth to a rather nasty and bitey little calf, things turn bad fast. In an attempt to build a better cow, the calf is born pregnant with mean little mutant fetuses. One escapes and spreads its nastiness, trapping the farmer, a vet, the scientist and two young lovers on the farm as they hope to stop the calf-monster from taking over the world. Or at least Ireland.The main problem is that cows aren't inherently scary. And the fetus-monsters are shown to be rather fragile, what with their skeletons on the outside. So it's hard to catch any real sense of urgency, especially from such stoic Irish characters. But there's one scene of the cow-monster that was pretty frightening and there's some decent gore. And in context of the mass animal slaughters in the UK with Mad Cow and Hoof and Mouth, the whole thing is relevant and bleak and disturbing.I think I still prefer "Dead Meat," which has about as frightening a cow attack as I suppose you can make. But those who like their horror serious or with an interest in GM foods should find something to like in "Isolation."